Download - JUDGMENT AGAINST BABYLON JEREMIAH 50:1-46biblestudyworkshop.com/download/old/jeremiah/Jeremiah 50.pdf · Jeremiah 51:5964,- This is the order Jeremiah the prophet gave to Seraiah

www.biblestudyworkshop.org 1 Commentary and questions by John C. Sewell

JUDGMENT AGAINST BABYLON

JEREMIAH 50:1-46

Landmark Publications, Inc., 1045 Maynor Street, Nashville, TN 37216, U.S.A., John C. Sewell, Ph.D., Editor.

http://www.biblestudyworkshop.org/


JUDGMENT AGAINST BABYLON Text: Jeremiah 50:1-46, 1. The Lord spoke concerning Babylon and the land of Babylonia through the prophet Jeremiah. 2. “Announce the news among the nations! Proclaim it! Signal for people to pay attention! Declare the news! Do not hide it! Say: ‘Babylon will be captured. Bel will be put to shame. Marduk will be dismayed. Babylon’s idols will be put to shame. Her disgusting images will be dismayed. 3. For a nation from the north will attack Babylon. It will lay her land waste. People and animals will flee out of it. No one will inhabit it.’ 4. “When that time comes,” says the Lord, “the people of Israel and Judah will return to the land together. They will come back with tears of repentance as they seek the Lord their God. 5. They will ask the way to Zion; they will turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the Lord in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten. 6. “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have allowed them to go astray. They have wandered around in the mountains. They have roamed from one mountain and hill to another. They have forgotten their resting place. 7. All who encountered them devoured them. Their enemies who did this said, ‘We are not liable for punishment! For those people have sinned against the Lord, their true pasture. They have sinned against the Lord in whom their ancestors trusted.’




8. “People of Judah, get out of Babylon quickly! Leave the land of Babylonia! Be the first to depart! Be like the male goats that lead the herd. 9. For I will rouse into action and bring against Babylon a host of mighty nations from the land of the north. They will set up their battle lines against her. They will come from the north and capture her. Their arrows will be like a skilled soldier who does not return from the battle empty-handed. 10. Babylonia will be plundered. Those who plunder it will take all they want,” says the Lord. 11. “People of Babylonia, you plundered my people. That made you happy and glad. You frolic about like calves in a pasture. Your joyous sounds are like the neighs of a stallion. 12. But Babylonia will be put to great shame. The land where you were born will be disgraced. Indeed, Babylonia will become the least important of all nations. It will become a dry and barren desert. 13. After I vent my wrath on it Babylon will be uninhabited. It will be totally desolate. All who pass by will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn because of all the disasters that have happened to it. 14. “Take up your battle positions all around Babylon, all you soldiers who are armed with bows. Shoot all your arrows at her! Do not hold any back! For she has sinned against the Lord. 15. Shout the battle cry from all around the city. She will throw up her hands in surrender. Her towers will fall. Her walls will be torn down. Because I, the Lord, am wreaking revenge, take out your vengeance on her! Do to her as she has done!




16. Kill all the farmers who sow the seed in the land of Babylon. Kill all those who wield the sickle at harvest time. Let all the foreigners return to their own people. Let them hurry back to their own lands to escape destruction by that enemy army. 17. “The people of Israel are like scattered sheep which lions have chased away. First the king of Assyria devoured them. Now last of all King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has gnawed their bones. 18. So I, the Lord God of Israel who rules over all, say: ‘I will punish the king of Babylon and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria. 19. But I will restore the flock of Israel to their own pasture. They will graze on Mount Carmel and the land of Bashan. They will eat until they are full on the hills of Ephraim and the land of Gilead. 20. When that time comes, no guilt will be found in Israel. No sin will be found in Judah. For I will forgive those of them I have allowed to survive. I, the Lord, affirm it!’” 21. The Lord says, “Attack the land of Merathaim and the people who live in Pekod! Pursue, kill, and completely destroy them! Do just as I have commanded you! 22. The noise of battle can be heard in the land of Babylonia. There is the sound of great destruction. 23. Babylon hammered the whole world to pieces. But see how that ‘hammer’ has been broken and shattered! See what an object of horror Babylon has become among the nations! 24. I set a trap for you, Babylon; you were caught before you knew it. You fought against me. So you were found and captured.




25. I have opened up the place where my weapons are stored. I have brought out the weapons for carrying out my wrath. For I, the Lord God who rules over all, have work to carry out in the land of Babylonia. 26. Come from far away and attack Babylonia! Open up the places where she stores her grain! Pile her up in ruins! Destroy her completely! Do not leave anyone alive! 27. Kill all her soldiers! Let them be slaughtered! They are doomed, for their day of reckoning has come, the time for them to be punished.” 28. Listen! Fugitives and refugees are coming from the land of Babylon. They are coming to Zion to declare there how the Lord our God is getting revenge, getting revenge for what they have done to his temple. 29. “Call for archers to come against Babylon! Summon against her all who draw the bow! Set up camp all around the city! Do not allow anyone to escape! Pay her back for what she has done. Do to her what she has done to others. For she has proudly defied me, the Holy One of Israel. 30. So her young men will fall in her city squares. All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,” says the Lord. 31. “Listen! I am opposed to you, you proud city,” says the Lord God who rules over all. “Indeed, your day of reckoning has come, the time when I will punish you. 32. You will stumble and fall, you proud city; no one will help you get up. I will set fire to your towns; it will burn up everything that surrounds you.” 33. The Lord who rules over all says, “The people of Israel are oppressed. So too are the people of Judah. All those who took them captive are holding them prisoners. They refuse to set them free.




34. But the one who will rescue them is strong. He is known as the Lord who rules over all. He will strongly champion their cause. As a result he will bring peace and rest to the earth, but trouble and turmoil to the people who inhabit Babylonia. 35. “Destructive forces will come against the Baby-lonians,” says the Lord. “They will come against the people who inhabit Babylonia, against her leaders and her men of wisdom. 36. Destructive forces will come against her false prophets; they will be shown to be fools! Destructive forces will come against her soldiers; they will be filled with terror! 37. Destructive forces will come against her horses and her chariots. Destructive forces will come against all the foreign troops within her; they will be as frightened as women! Destructive forces will come against her treasures; they will be taken away as plunder! 38. A drought will come upon her land; her rivers and canals will be dried up. All of this will happen because her land is filled with idols. Her people act like madmen because of those idols they fear. 39. Therefore desert creatures and jackals will live there. Ostriches will dwell in it too. But no people will ever live there again. No one will dwell there for all time to come. 40. I will destroy Babylonia just like I did Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns. No one will live there. No human being will settle in it,” says the Lord. 41. “Look! An army is about to come from the north. A mighty nation and many kings are stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth.




42. Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears. They are cruel and show no mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride forth on their horses. Lined up in formation like men going into battle, they are coming against you, fair Babylon! 43. The king of Babylon will become paralyzed with fear when he hears news of their coming. Anguish will grip him, agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby. 44. “A lion coming up from the thick undergrowth along the Jordan scatters the sheep in the pastureland around it. So too I will chase the Babylonians off of their land. Then I will appoint over it whomever I choose. For there is no one like me. There is no one who can call me to account. There is no ruler that can stand up against me. 45. So listen to what I, the Lord, have planned against Babylon, what I intend to do to the people who inhabit the land of Babylonia. Their little ones will be dragged off. I will completely destroy their land because of what they have done. 46. The people of the earth will quake when they hear Babylon has been captured. Her cries of anguish will be heard by the other nations.” (NET) Introduction: I. Hamilton concluded, since there is no mention of the Persian conquest in 539 B.C., the oracles regarding Babylon predated that event.

A. Only Jeremiah 51:59-64 can be dated with certainty, that being connected to the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. (Hamilton)




1. Jeremiah 51:59-64, This is the order Jeremiah the prophet gave to Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went to King Zedekiah of Judah in Babylon during the fourth year of his reign. (Seraiah was a quartermaster.) Jeremiah recorded on one scroll all the judgments that would come upon Babylon—all these prophecies written about Babylon. Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon, make sure you read aloud all these prophecies. Then say, ‘O Lord, you have announced that you will destroy this place so that no people or animals live in it any longer. Certainly it will lie desolate forever!’ When you finish reading this scroll aloud, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River. Then say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the judgments I am ready to bring upon her; they will grow faint.’” The prophecies of Jeremiah end here. (NET)

B. Willis wrote, “The concluding paragraph (51:59-64) sets this lengthy section in the context of the reign of Zedekiah (c. 594 B.C.), several years before the fall of Jerusalem.”

C. The oracles contained in chapters 50 and 51 can be dated to the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah. (Clarke)

II. The downfall of Babylon is the unifying theme of all the oracles relating to the destruction of Babylon and the restoration of the Jews to their homeland. (Hamilton.




A. Coffman quoting Wycliffe wrote, “There are actually two themes in chapters 50 and 51, The fall of Babylon, and the return of the Jews from exile.”

II. Smith wrote, Although Jeremiah advocated submission to Babylon as the world power appointed by God, he was no Babylonian partisan. He regarded Nebuchadnezzar as only a tool which God was using to accomplish his purpose. Justice demanded that the Babylonians taste the wrath of God.”

A. Jeremiah 25:12, 26, “‘But when the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation for their sins. I will make the land of Babylon an everlasting ruin. I, the Lord, affirm it! all the kings of the north, whether near or far from one another; and all the other kingdoms which are on the face of the earth. After all of them have drunk the wine of the Lord’s wrath, the king of Babylon must drink it. (NET)

B. Jeremiah “was never pro-Chaldean, for he loved Israel with an undying love; and the same God who had commanded Jeremiah to advise submission earlier, has in these chapters commanded him to reveal the ultimate destruction in Babylon.” (Coffman)




Commentary: Jeremiah 50:1, The Lord spoke concerning Babylon and the land of Babylonia through the prophet Jeremiah. (NET) I. The Lord spoke concerning Babylon and the land of Babylonia* through the prophet Jeremiah.

A. *NET Footnote: Hebrew – of the Chaldeans (also in v. 10).

B. The days were approaching when Babylon would be destroyed and repentant Judah would be delivered. (See Jeremiah 50:1-10.) (Smith) (Also see Clarke.)

C. Clarke wrote that this oracle was sent by Jeremiah to the captive exiles by the courier Seraiah.

1. Jeremiah 51:59-64, This is the order Jeremiah the prophet gave to Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went to King Zedekiah of Judah in Babylon during the fourth year of his reign. (Seraiah was a quartermaster.) Jeremiah recorded on one scroll all the judgments that would come upon Babylon—all these prophecies written about Babylon. Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon, make sure you read aloud all these prophecies. Then say, ‘O Lord, you have announced that you will destroy this place so that no people or animals live in it any longer. Certainly it will lie desolate forever!’




When you finish reading this scroll aloud, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River. Then say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the judgments I am ready to bring upon her; they will grow faint.’” The prophecies of Jeremiah end here. (NET)

D. This word of the Lord had to do with Babylon’s destruction and Israel’s deliverance. (The Pulpit Commentary)

Jeremiah 50:2, “Announce the news among the nations! Proclaim it! Signal for people to pay attention! Declare the news! Do not hide it! Say: ‘Babylon will be captured. Bel will be put to shame. Marduk will be dismayed. Babylon’s idols will be put to shame. Her disgusting images will be dismayed. (NET) I. “Announce the news among the nations! Proclaim it!

A. Willis identified three groups, one consisting of several nations from the north, a second one consisting of the people of Israel portrayed as wandering sheep, and the third the people of Babylon, which were addressed in this oracle.

B. God’s word then and now must be proclaimed continually, faithfully, world-wide!

C. God’s intentions for the destruction of Babylon and the return of the Jews to Palestine were to be made known to the nations.




II. Signal for people to pay attention! Declare the news! Do not hide it!

A. The sad facts are that through all of history, the word of the Lord has not always been faithfully proclaimed and, when the word has been faithfully proclaimed, people have certainly not always paid attention to it.

B. A standard was to be erected to gain the attention of all who might not be within the hearing of this proclamation. (The Pulpit Commentary)

III. Say: ‘Babylon will be captured. Bel* will be put to shame. Marduk will be dismayed. Babylon’s idols will be put to shame. Her disgusting images will be dismayed.

A. *NET Footnote: Originally the name of the Sumerian storm god, at the height of Babylon’s power Bel became a title applied to Marduk, chief deity of Babylon.

B. Hamilton observed that “Bel (Lord) is the Akkadian equivalent of the northwest Semitic “Baal,” with an identical meaning. Bel signifies the chief deity of Babylon, Marduk (Hebrew; Merodach).

1. Isaiah 46:1, Bel kneels down, Nebo bends low. Their images weigh down animals and beasts. Your heavy images are burdensome to tired animals. (NET)




2. “The Babylonians hailed Marduk as the most powerful being of all, the great warrior god who gave victory to Babylon. Here he is shown to be nothing, as he is here put to shame and terrified by the Lord, . . .,” Willis wrote.

3. Bel was regarded by the Babylonians as “king of heaven and earth,” but . . .

4. Marduk would be powerless before the Lord God Almighty.

a. Jeremiah 46:18, I the King, whose name is the Lord who rules over all, swear this: I swear as surely as I live that a conqueror is coming. He will be as imposing as Mount Tabor is among the mountains, as Mount Carmel is against the backdrop of the sea. (NET)

b. Jeremiah 49:5, 26, 35, I will bring terror on you from every side,” says the Lord God who rules over all. “You will be scattered in every direction. No one will gather the fugitives back together. For her young men will fall in her city squares. All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,” says the Lord who rules over all. The Lord who rules over all said, “I will kill all the archers of Elam, who are the chief source of her military might. (NET)




c. Leviticus 26:30, I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. I will abhor you. (NET)

5. Bel, Marduk, could not save Babylonians from destruction. Bel could not even save itself. (See Clarke.)

C. To the people of Judah in the fourth year of Zedekiah, this prophecy must have appeared to be an absolute impossibility.

1. However, the destruction of Babylon, having been foretold by the Lord, was a sure thing, “a done deal.”

Jeremiah 50:3, For a nation from the north will attack Babylon. It will lay her land waste. People and animals will flee out of it. No one will inhabit it.’ (NET) I. For a nation from the north will attack Babylon. It will lay her land waste. People and animals will flee out of it. No one will inhabit it.

A. *NET Footnote: Referring to Medo-Persia, an empire to the North and East of Babylon.

B. The nation which would attack Babylon would, in fact, be an alliance of great nations, Hamilton wrote.

1. The Medes would form the chief part of Cyrus’ army. They lived North or Northeast of Babylon. (Clarke)




C. Babylon came “out of the north” against Judah and Jerusalem. Now a nation from the north would come against Babylon. (Coffman)

1. Coffman noted that this was literally true because the Medes were Northwest of Babylon.

2. Coffman observed that a mystery was attached in the Hebrew mind to “north” and connoted the idea of “hidden.”

3. Ezekiel 1:4, As I watched, I noticed a windstorm coming from the north—an enormous cloud, with lightning flashing, such that bright light rimmed it and came from it like glowing amber from the middle of a fire. (NET)

4. Leviticus 1:11, and must slaughter it on the north side of the altar before the Lord, and the sons of Aaron, the priests, will splash its blood against the altar’s sides. (NET)

D. Babylon would over time be totally devastated, destroyed, deserted.

1. God’s word has been fulfilled as spoken! This is true of every prophecy God has ever spoken. No word of God has ever been found to be false.

2. Jeremiah 9:10, I said, “I will weep and mourn for the grasslands on the mountains, I will sing a




mournful song for the pastures in the wilderness because they are so scorched no one travels through them. The sound of livestock is no longer heard there. Even the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the fields have fled and are gone.” (NET)

Jeremiah 50:4, “When that time comes,” says the Lord, “the people of Israel and Judah will return to the land together. They will come back with tears of repentance as they seek the Lord their God. (NET) I. “When that time comes,” says the Lord, “the people of Israel and Judah will return to the land together.

A. The return of Israel and Judah to the land of Canaan was a future event at the time this oracle was revealed to Jeremiah.

B. When the time came to return home, Nehemiah, Ezra, Zerubbabel and other exiles, now repentant and rededicated to God, returned to their homeland.

1. “The destruction of Babylon was to be immediately followed by the deliverance of Israel.” (The Pulpit Commentary)

II. They will come back with tears of repentance as they seek the Lord their God.




A. The exiles who returned to Jerusalem were a repentant people, far different than those who went into exile some seventy years previously.

1. Jeremiah 3:18-21, At that time the nation of Judah and the nation of Israel will be reunited. Together they will come back from a land in the north to the land that I gave to your ancestors as a permanent possession.” “I thought to myself, ‘Oh what a joy it would be for me to treat you like a son! What a joy it would be for me to give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful piece of property there is in all the world!’ I thought you would call me, ‘Father’ and would never cease being loyal to me. But, you have been unfaithful to me, nation of Israel, like an unfaithful wife who has left her husband,” says the Lord. “A noise is heard on the hilltops. It is the sound of the people of Israel crying and pleading to their gods. Indeed they have followed sinful ways; they have forgotten to be true to the Lord their God. (NET)

B. To a greater extent, those of Israel could return to God through the Messiah. (See The Pulpit Commentary)

Jeremiah 50:5, They will ask the way to Zion; they will turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the Lord in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten. (NET)




I. They will ask the way to Zion; they will turn their faces toward it.

A. Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary reads, “The designation of Zion underwent a distinct progression in its usage throughout the Bible.

1. The first mention of Zion in the Bible is in 2 Samuel 5:7, But David captured the fortress of Zion (that is, the City of David). (NET) Zion, therefore, was the name of the ancient Jebusite fortress situated on the southeast hill of Jerusalem at the junction of the Kidron Valley and the Tyropoeon Valley. The name came to stand not only for the fortress but also for the hill on which the fortress stood. After David captured ‘the stronghold of Zion’ by defeating the Jebusites, he called Zion ‘the city of David.’

a. 1 Kings 8:1, Then Solomon convened in Jerusalem Israel’s elders, all the leaders of the Israelite tribes and families, so they could witness the transferal of the ark of the Lord’s covenant from the City of David (that is, Zion). (NET)

b. 1 Chronicles 11:5, The residents of Jebus said to David, “You cannot invade this place!” But David captured the fortress of Zion (that is, the City of David). (NET)

c. 2 Chronicles 5:2, Then Solomon convened Israel’s elders—all the leaders of the




Israelite tribes and families—in Jerusalem, so they could witness the transferal of the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the City of David (that is, Zion). (NET)

2. When Solomon built the Temple on Mount Moriah (a hill distinct and separate from Mount Zion), and moved the ark of the covenant there, the word ‘Zion’ expanded in meaning to include also the Temple and the Temple area.

a. Psalm 2:6, “I myself have installed my king on Zion, my holy hill.” (NET)

b. Psalm 48:2, 11-12, It is lofty and pleasing to look at, a source of joy to the whole earth. Mount Zion resembles the peaks of Zaphon; it is the city of the great king.

Mount Zion rejoices; the towns of Judah are happy, because of your acts of judgment. Walk around Zion! Encircle it! Count its towers! (NET)

c. Psalm 132:13, Certainly the Lord has chosen Zion; he decided to make it his home. (NET)

3. It was only a short step until Zion was used as a name for the city of Jerusalem, the land of Judah, and the people of Israel as a whole, the entire nation of Israel.




a. Isaiah 40:9, Go up on a high mountain, O herald Zion! Shout out loudly, O herald Jerusalem! Shout, don’t be afraid! Say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!” (NET)

b. Jeremiah 31:12, They will come and shout for joy on Mount Zion. They will be radiant with joy over the good things the Lord provides, the grain, the fresh wine, the olive oil, the young sheep and calves he has given to them. They will be like a well-watered garden and will not grow faint or weary any more. (NET)

c. Zechariah 9:13, I will bend Judah as my bow; I will load the bow with Ephraim, my arrow! I will stir up your sons, Zion, against yours, Greece, and I will make you, Zion, like a warrior’s sword. (NET)

4. The most important use of the word ‘Zion’ is in a religious or theological sense. Zion is used figuratively of Israel as the people of God. The spiritual meaning of Zion is continued in the New Testament, where it is given the Christian meaning of God’s spiritual kingdom, the church of God, the heavenly Jerusalem.”

a. Hebrews 12:22, But you have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the assembly (NET)




b. Revelation 14:1, Then I looked, and here was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were one hundred and forty-four thousand, who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. (NET)

II. They will come and bind themselves to the Lord in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten.

A. All the previous covenants made between God and Israel had been broken, nullified by Israel.

1. Jeremiah 32:40, I will make a lasting covenant with them that I will never stop doing good to them. I will fill their hearts and minds with respect for me so that they will never again turn away from me. (NET)

B. Never again would they worship idols. Also, the covenant made through Jesus Christ is an everlasting covenant available to all nations of the world.

Jeremiah 50:6, “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have allowed them to go astray. They have wandered around in the mountains. They have roamed from one mountain and hill to another. They have forgotten their resting place. (NET) I. “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds* have allowed them to go astray.




A. *NET Footnote: Shepherds frequently refers to kings or other royal, political, or military leaders.

B. These “shepherds” which had led the people astray “were their kings, judges, priests and false prophets.” (Coffman)

1. It is, therefore, vitally important that church and governmental leaders be selected with utmost care!

C. Related references: . . .

1. Isaiah 27:13, At that time a large trumpet will be blown, and the ones lost in the land of Assyria will come, as well as the refugees in the land of Egypt. They will worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem. (NET)

2. Psalm 119:176, I have wandered off like a lost sheep. Come looking for your servant, for I do not forget your commands. (NET)

3. Isaiah 53:6, All of us had wandered off like sheep; each of us had strayed off on his own path, but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him. (NET)

II. They have wandered around in the mountains. They have wandered from one mountain and hill to another. They have forgotten their resting place.




A. The people of Israel and Judah had wandered far from God, worshiped various idols on the hills where shrines had been erected. (See Clarke.)

1. They had paid the price for their sinfulness.

2. The time would come when the people of Israel and Judah would genuinely repent and return to God and their homeland.

B. Ancient Israel had wandered far from the Lord, their shepherd.

1. Psalm 23:1, The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. (NET)

Jeremiah 50:7, All who encountered them devoured them. Their enemies who did this said, ‘We are not liable for punishment! For those people have sinned against the Lord, their true pasture. They have sinned against the Lord in whom their ancestors trusted.’ (NET) I. All who encountered them devoured them. Their enemies who did this said, “We are not liable for punishment!

A. God had finally abandoned his sinful, idolatrous people.

B. Israel’s enemies devoured them believing they would not be liable for anything they did to the Israelites because God had deserted them.




C. Since Israel had given themselves over to sinful living, the Babylonians thought they would incur no guilt or punishment for destroying Jerusalem.

1. They would most certainly suffer for their own sins including pride, arrogance and idolatry.

2. If Israel had been living faithfully to God, anyone who mistreated them would have incurred guilt.

a. Jeremiah 2:3, Israel was set apart to the Lord; they were like the first fruits of a harvest to him. All who tried to devour them were punished; disaster came upon them,” says the Lord.’” (NET)

II. For those people have sinned against the Lord, their true pasture. They have sinned against the Lord in whom their ancestors* trusted!

A. *NET Footnote: Hebrew – fathers.

B. The sinfulness of Israel and Judah did not justify the wickedness of other nations perpetrated against them.

C. “Their true pasture” or “Habitation of justice” here is the Lord while in Jeremiah 31:23 the reference is to Jerusalem.

1. Jeremiah 31:23, The Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, “I will restore the people of Judah to their land and to their towns. When I do, they will again say of Jerusalem, ‘May the




Lord bless you, you holy mountain, the place where righteousness dwells.’ (NET)

D. Sinning against the Lord was treason. (The Pulpit Commentary)

1. Psalm 22:4, In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted in you and you rescued them. (NET)

Jeremiah 50:8, “People of Judah, get out of Babylon quickly! Leave the land of Babylonia! Be the first to depart! Be like the male goats that lead the herd. (NET) I. “People of Judah, get out of Babylon quickly! Leave the land of Babylonia! Be the first to depart! Be like the male goats that lead the herd.

A. The exiles were admonished to flee Babylon at the first opportunity, to be the leaders in leaving Babylon, to depart en masse.

1. Isaiah 48:20, Leave Babylon! Flee from the Babylonians! Announce it with a shout of joy! Make this known! Proclaim it throughout the earth! Say, ‘The Lord protects his servant Jacob. (NET)

2. The fact was the exiles were hardly willing to leave Babylon at all, and many never left. (Coffman)




3. Regarding the “male goats,” rams, Coffman explained, “Once the sheepfold was opened, the male goats would rush from the enclosure first.”

a. “The “flocks” followed unhesitatingly the lead of the male goats. (The Pulpit Commentary)

b. The flocks were the captives in Babylon who were to follow the Lord’s command to leave Babylon at their first opportunity.

Jeremiah 50:9, For I will rouse into action and bring against Babylon a host of mighty nations from the land of the north. They will set up their battle lines against her. They will come from the north and capture her. Their arrows will be like a skilled soldier who does not return from the battle empty-handed. (NET) I. For I will rouse into action and bring against Babylon a host of mighty nations from the land of the north.

A. The Medes and Persians formed an alliance with various other nations and together attacked and defeated Babylon.

1. Clarke wrote, “The army of Cyrus was composed of Medes, Persians, Armenians, Caducians, Sacae, et. al.

2. All of these nations did not come from the north, but the Medes under whose leadership they served did come from the north. (Clarke)




3. “Cyrus captured the city by diverting the Euphrates River out of its channel, a diversion that took place up-stream from Babylon, which was northward,” Coffman wrote.

4. The exiles were commanded to leave Babylon before the Medes and Persians attacked.

II. They will set up their battle lines against her. They will come from the north and capture her.

A. Battles lines were to be drawn, plans of attack carefully developed, combat was joined.

B. Babylon was defeated, captured, conquered by the Medes and Persians.

III. Their arrows will be like a skilled soldier who does not return from the battle empty-handed.

A. The Medes and Persians were excellent archers, superior marksmen, expert warriors.

1. They would not be denied victory.

Jeremiah 50:10, Babylonia will be plundered. Those who plunder it will take all they want,” says the Lord. (NET) I. Babylonia will be plundered. Those who plunder it will take all they want,” says the Lord.




A. The wealth of Babylon will be taken by force by the conquerors, a custom of that time.

1. Victorious mercenaries were sometimes richly rewarded for their services.

B. The Babylonians had destroyed Judah and Jerusalem. Now the Babylonians would be destroyed. (See Clarke.)

Jeremiah 50:11, “People of Babylonia, you plundered my people. That made you happy and glad. You frolic about like calves in a pasture. Your joyous sounds are like the neighs of a stallion. (NET) I. “People of Babylonia, you plundered my people.* That made you happy and glad.

A. *NET Footnote: Or – land.

B. While God had used Babylon to punish Judah, they were a sinful people and were subject to divine punishment.

C. Desolation awaited Babylon while restoration awaited Judah. (Jeremiah 50:11-20) (Smith)

1. Assyria and Babylon had devoured Israel, north and south.

2. The scattered, repentant people of Israel would return to their homeland where they would enjoy peace and prosperity.




II. You frolic about like calves in a pasture. Your joyous sounds are like the neighs of a stallion.

A. Coffman stated that God was angry with Babylon because they rejoiced with a sadistic hatred of Israel when calamities were befalling Jerusalem. They aggravated Judah’s sorrows in every possible way.

1. The Babylonians were like well fed calves and happy, healthy stallions who took great delight in the horrible suffering which had befallen Judah and Jerusalem. (See Coffman.)

2. God strongly opposed this arrogant and unsympa-thetic attitude of the Babylonians. (See Coffman.)

Jeremiah 50:12, But Babylonia will be put to great shame. The land where you were born will be disgraced. Indeed, Babylonia will become the least important of all nations. It will become a dry and barren desert. (NET) I. But Babylonia will be put to great shame. The land where you were born will be disgraced.

A. Shame and disgrace would befall Babylon!

B. Think of all the mighty empires of history that have risen and fallen including the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.

II. Indeed, Babylonia will become the least important of all nations. It will become a dry and barren desert.




A. Coffman observed that while God prophesied the total and final desolation of Babylon, he did not prophecy that this would happen immediately.

1. This decline covered many centuries in stages.

a. From the greatest nation of that era, Babylon became the least of the nations, but still a nation, . . .

b. then a wilderness, a dry land and finally a desert. (See Coffman.)

2. Babylon’s triumphant rule would be of short duration.

Jeremiah 50:13, After I vent my wrath on it Babylon will be uninhabited. It will be totally desolate. All who pass by will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn because of all the disasters that have happened to it. (NET) I. After I vent my wrath on it Babylon will be uninhabited. It will be totally desolate.

A. God’s promises are not always immediately fulfilled, but they are all, everyone kept.

B. Considerable time was used to reduce Babylon to an uninhabited, desolate place, but such it became and so it remains today.




C. Compare this verse with: . . .

1. Jeremiah 19:8, I will make this city an object of horror, a thing to be hissed at. All who pass by it will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn because of all the disasters that have happened to it. (NET)

2. Jeremiah 49:17, “Edom will become an object of horror. All who pass by it will be filled with horror; they will hiss out their scorn because of all the disasters that have happened to it. (NET)

II. All who pass by will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn because of all the disasters that have happened to it.

A. Once mighty Babylon will be left in ruins causing all who pass by to be struck with horror and to show utter contempt for the once great city which was unable to defend itself.

Jeremiah 50:14, “Take up your battle positions all around Babylon, all you soldiers who are armed with bows. Shoot all your arrows at her! Do not hold any back! For she has sinned against the Lord. (NET) I. “Take up your battle positions all around Babylon, all you soldiers who are armed with bows.

A. The Medes were said to have been great archers.

1. Isaiah 13:18, Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; they have no compassion on a




person’s offspring, they will not look with pity on children. (NET)

B. The Medes and Persians were to strategically deploy their troops against Babylon in the most effective manner with special attention to the most advantageous utilization of the archers.

II. Shoot all your arrows at her! Do not hold any back! For she has sinned against the Lord.

A. Babylon had greatly sinned against the Lord.

1. Those attacking Babylon were to bring their total power of destruction against Babylon.

2. All their fire power was to be released against Babylon so that it would be totally and utterly destroyed.

Jeremiah 50:15, Shout the battle cry from all around the city. She will throw up her hands in surrender. Her towers will fall. Her walls will be torn down. Because I, the Lord, am wreaking revenge, take out your vengeance on her! Do to her as she has done! (NET) I. Shout the battle cry from all around the city.

A. Babylon would be surrounded and hostile cries from all quarters would reverberate throughout the city causing fear in the hearts of all the people in the city.




B. Related references: . . .

1. Joshua 6:16, The seventh time around, the priests blew the rams’ horns and Joshua told the army, “Give the battle cry, for the Lord is handing the city over to you! (NET)

2. Isaiah 42:13, The Lord emerges like a hero, like a warrior he inspires himself for battle; he shouts, yes, he yells, he shows his enemies his power. (NET)

II. She will throw up her hands in surrender. Her towers* will fall. Her walls will be torn down.

A. *NET Footnote: The meaning of this word is uncertain; some view it as an Akkadian loanword.

B. Coffman well noted that, while her walls were not torn down initially, they were torn down a little later in the Persian period when the city revolted in 514 B.C.

C. The city was surrounded! No one escaped. (See Clarke.)

D. Babylon would “throw up her hands in surrender.

1. The Pulpit Commentary states that “throwing up of hands” was generally a pledge of friendship or ratifica-tion of a promise and the idea of surrender would naturally follow.




a. 2 Kings 10:15, When he left there, he met Jehonadab, son of Rekab, who had been looking for him. Jehu greeted him and asked, “Are you as committed to me as I am to you?” Jehonadab answered, “I am!” Jehu replied, “If so, give me your hand.” So he offered his hand and Jehu pulled him up into the chariot. (NET)

b. Ezekiel 17:18, He despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Take note—he gave his promise and did all these things—he will not escape! (NET)

c. Ezra 10:19, (They gave their word to send away their wives; their guilt offering was a ram from the flock for their guilt.) (NET)

d. 1 Chronicles 29:24, All the officers and warriors, as well as all of King David’s sons, pledged their allegiance to King Solomon. (NET)

e. 2 Chronicles 30:8, Now, don’t be stubborn like your fathers! Submit to the Lord and come to his sanctuary which he has permanently consecrated. Serve the Lord your God so that he might relent from his raging anger. (NET)

III. Because I, the Lord, am wrecking revenge, take out your vengeance on her! Do to her as she has done!




A. Babylon will be defeated and Israel is to be avenged.

1. Twice in this chapter (verses 15 and 29) it is said that what Babylon had done to others would be done to her.

2. Babylon would reap what it had sown.

B. The Old Testament law of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” taught that the punishment for a crime was to be proportionate to the severity of the crime, a merciful provision in that ancient and cruel age. Notice the teaching was not “two eyes for an eye and two teeth for a tooth.”

Jeremiah 50:16, Kill all the farmers who sow the seed in the land of Babylon. Kill all those who wield the sickle at harvest time. Let all the foreigners return to their own people. Let them hurry back to their own lands to escape destruction by that enemy army. (NET) I. Kill all the farmers who sow the seed in the land of Babylon. Kill all those who wield the sickle at harvest time.

A. Farmers were all to be killed which would lead to the starvation of all the Babylonians.

II. Let all the foreigners return to their own people. Let them hurry back to their own lands to escape destruction by that enemy army.




A. All foreigners residing in Babylon were strongly advised to return to their home countries while they could.

1. After the battle was joined, there would be no escape.

2. Isaiah 13:14, Like a frightened gazelle or a sheep with no shepherd, each will turn toward home, each will run to his homeland. (NET)

3. Whether these foreigners were captive exiles like the Israelites or voluntary residents, they were in haste to depart Babylon and return to their own countries.

Jeremiah 50:17, “The people of Israel are like scattered sheep which lions have chased away. First the king of Assyria devoured them. Now last of all King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has gnawed their bones. I. “The people of Israel are like scattered sheep which lions have chased away.

A. “This paragraph,” Coffman wrote, “mentions two past events, the destruction of Samaria and the Northern kingdom of Israel in 597 B.C., at which time the first wave of captives was carried to Babylon, and Zedekiah’s becoming regent king for Nebuchadnezzar. The message is that God had humiliated and destroyed the king of Assyria at Ninevah, and that he would bring a similar destruction upon Babylon.”




B. All Israel had been scattered, taken into captivity and exiled, the northern tribes by the Assyrians and the southern tribes by the Babylonians.

1. The Israelites as sheep were attacked and devoured by the Babylonians and Assyrians likened here to lions.

II. First the king of Assyria devoured* them. Now last of all King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has gnawed their bones.

A. Many illustrations in Jeremiah reference agriculture and the natural world because this was the life with which most people were familiar.

B. *NET Footnote: In 783 B.C. Tiglath-pileser III conquered Galilee and the Transjordanian territories; in 722 B.C. Samaria was destroyed and its people exiled by Sargon II.

C. Assyria was a kingdom between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers that often dominated the ancient world. After defeating the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C., the Assyrians carried away thousands of Israelites and resettled them in other parts of the Assyrian Empire. This was a blow from which the nation never recovered. Ninevah was the capital of Assyria. The Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar defeated the Assyrians and Egyptians at Carchemish in 605 B.C. (Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

Jeremiah 50:18, So I, the Lord God of Israel who rules over all, say: ‘I will punish the king of Babylon and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria. (NET)




I. So, I the Lord God of Israel who rules over all, say: . . .

A. In response to the behaviors of Israel, Judah and their enemies, God had something to say.

B. Be assured God will have something to say about the actions of the nations in today’s world as well.

II. ‘I will punish the king of Babylon and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.

A. Kings involved in Israel’s and Judah’s tribulations included Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, Esar-hadden, et. al., Clarke wrote.

B. The Assyrians had been defeated and Babylon’s destruction was coming.

Jeremiah 50:19, But I will restore the flock of Israel to their own pasture. They will graze on Mount Carmel and the land of Bashan. They will eat until they are full on the hills of Ephraim and the land of Gilead. (NET) I. But I will restore the flock of Israel to her own pasture. They will graze on Mount Carmel and the land of Bashan.

A. Hamilton stated, “Like a shepherd leading his flock, Israel shall graze on Carmel and Bashan,” which refers “to the highlands extending westward from Megiddo to modern Haifa and to today’s Golan Heights south of Mount Hermon. By his grace the Lord will forgive the remnant.”




B. Mount Carmel was located on the Mediterranean coast near the present city of Haifa. It rises sharply from the seacoast to a height of 470 feet. The prophet Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. (Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Diction-ary)

1. 1 Kings 18:19-20, Now send out messengers and assemble all Israel before me at Mount Carmel, as well as the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah whom Jezebel supports. Ahab sent messengers to all the Israelites and had the prophets assemble at Mount Carmel. (NET)

C. Bashan was the territory east of the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee which was a rich, fertile tableland with abundant rainfall and volcanic soil. In the Old Testament the prosperity of Bashan became a symbol of selfish indulgence and arrogance. (Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible dictionary)

1. Psalm 22:12, Many bulls surround me; powerful bulls of Bashan hem me in. (NET)

2. Amos 4:1, Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan who live on Mount Samaria! You oppress the poor; you crush the needy. You say to your husbands, “Bring us more to drink!” (NET)

D. This, Clarke noted, appears to refer to the northern ten tribes because all of the places named in this verse (Carmel,




Bashan, Mount Ephraim and Gilead) were occupied by the northern tribes.

II. They will eat until they are full on the hills of Ephraim and the land of Gilead.

A. Ephraim was the second son of Joseph born in Egypt. Eventually Ephraim’s thousands of descendants settled in the land of Canaan as one of the most numerous of the tribes of Israel. The hills of Ephraim were a range of mountains west of the Jordan River, extending as far south as Ramah and Bethel, names for the tribe of Ephraim, which settled the region. (Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

B. Gilead was a mountain region east of the Jordan River 3,000 feet above sea level. Extending about 60 miles from near the south end of the Sea of Galilee to the north end of the Dead Sea. Gilead was about 20 miles wide. It was bounded on the west by the Jordan river, on the south by the land of Moab, on the north by the Yarmuk River, and on the east by the desert. (Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

C. All the places mentioned were known for their rich pastureland. (See The Pulpit Commentary)

1. Jeremiah 22:6, “‘For the Lord says concerning the palace of the king of Judah, “This place looks like a veritable forest of Gilead to me. It is like the wooded heights of Lebanon in my eyes. But I




swear that I will make it like a wilderness whose towns have all been deserted. (NET)

2. Isaiah 33:9, The land dries up and withers away; the forest of Lebanon shrivels up and decays. Sharon is like the desert; Bashan and Carmel are parched. (NET)

3. Micah 7:14, Shepherd your people with your shepherd’s rod, the flock that belongs to you, the one that lives alone in a thicket, in the midst of a pastureland. Allow them to graze in Bashan and Gilead, as they did in the old days. (NET)

4. Ezekiel 34:13-14, I will bring them out from among the peoples and gather them from foreign countries; I will bring them to their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams and all the inhabited places of the land. In a good pasture I will feed them; the mountain heights of Israel will be their pasture. There they will lie down in a lush pasture, and they will feed on rich grass on the mountains of Israel. (NET)

5. Song of Solomon 4:1, Oh, you are beautiful, my darling! Oh, you are beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are like doves. Your hair is like a flock of female goats descending from Mount Gilead. (NET)




Jeremiah 50:20, When that time comes, no guilt will be found in Israel. No sin will be found in Judah. For I will forgive those of them I have allowed to survive. I, the Lord, affirm it!’” (NET) I. When that time comes, no guilt will be found in Israel. No sin will be found in Judah. For I will forgive those of them I have allowed to survive.

A. Coffman wrote that this refers to the pardon and forgiveness promised to Israel in the times of the Messiah in their acceptance and obedience to the Gospel of Christ

1. Jeremiah 31:34, “People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” says the Lord. “For I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.” (NET)

2. Jeremiah 33:8, I will purify them from all the sin that they committed against me. I will forgive all their sins which they committed in rebelling against me. (NET)

II. I, the Lord, affirm it!’”

A. The Lord made it clear (affirmed) that these were his words and that they were absolutely true.




Jeremiah 50:21, The Lord says, “Attack the land of Merathaim and the people who live in Pekod! Pursue, kill, and completely destroy them! Do just as I have commanded you! (NET) I. The Lord says, . . .

A. The Lord was now to give additional commands and promises, forecasts regarding Babylon to the effect that Babylon’s punishment would correspond with the seriousness of their crimes. (See The Pulpit Commentary.)

II. “Attack the land of Merathaim* and the people who live in Pekod!** Pursue, kill, and completely destroy them!

A. *NET Footnote: Merathaim probably refers to a region in southern Babylon where the Tigris and Euphrates join before flowing into the Persian Gulf.

B. **NET Footnote: Pekod was an Aramean tribe that lived on the eastern side of the lower Tigris River (Ezekiel 23:23).

1. Ezekiel 23:23, the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, desirable young men, all of them governors and officials, officers and nobles, all of them riding on horses. (NET)

C. God’s wrath would be visited upon Babylon. Israel and Judah would be vindicated. “Jewish captives would return to Zion to declare that the destruction of God’s temple had been avenged.” (Jeremiah 50:21-28) (Smith)




D. Coffman quoting Keil and Graybill stated, “Merathaim and Pekod were words coined by Jeremiah. Merathaim means “double bitterness” or “double rebellion” and Pekod means “punishment.” The names are symbols of the punishment foretold for Babylon.”

1. Jeremiah 17:18, May those who persecute me be disgraced. Do not let me be disgraced. May they be dismayed. Do not let me be dismayed. Bring days of disaster on them. Bring on them the destruction they deserve.” (NET)

D. Merathaim (double rebellion) is a symbolic name for Babylon. Merathaim is a play in the Hebrew language on the Babylonian words mat marrati (“Land of the Bitter River”), a region in southern Babylonia. (Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

E. Pekod was a minor Aramean tribe in eastern Babylonia. The prophet Jeremiah applied the name symbolically to the entire land of Babylonia, indicating they would be judged by God. (Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

1. Ezekiel 23:23, the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, desirable young men, all of them governors and officials, officers and nobles, all of them riding on horses. (NET)

III. Do just as I have commanded you!




A. The people to whom God spoke in those ancient days and we in this present age must do exactly as God commands.

1. No one and no command is exempted from this requirement.

Jeremiah 50:22, The noise of battle can be heard in the land of Babylonia. There is the sound of great destruction. (NET) I. The noise of battle can be heard in the land of Babylonia. There is the sound of great destruction.

A. The sound of battle resounded throughout the city of Babylon striking fear in hearts of all in the city.

1. In this “sound of battle” would be the cries and screams of wounded and dying soldiers in their agony.

2. Unspeakable horror!

Jeremiah 50:23, Babylon hammered the whole world to pieces. But see how that ‘hammer’ has been broken and shattered! See what an object of horror Babylon has become among the nations! (NET) I. Babylon hammered the whole world to pieces. But see how that ‘hammer’ has been broken and shattered! See what an object of horror Babylon has become among the nations!

A. The Babylonians, because of their forceful destruction of so many nations, was called the “hammer of the whole




earth,” but Babylon will itself be hammered, broken and shattered. (Coffman)

1. Coffman observed that others have been known as “hammers” including Judas Maccabaeus for his victory over Syria, Charles Martel, the victor in the Battle of Tours in 732 A.D., “Martel” means “Hammerer,” and Edward I of England, upon whose tomb in Westminster Abbey are the words (in Latin), “Hammer of the Scots.”

2. Nebuchadnezzar dashed to pieces, smashed as would a hammer, the nations against which he fought. (See Clarke.)

a. Isaiah 14:5, The Lord has broken the club of the wicked, the scepter of rulers. (NET)

b. Jeremiah 51:20-24, “Babylon, you are my war club, my weapon for battle. I used you to smash nations. I used you to destroy kingdoms. I used you to smash horses and their riders. I used you to smash chariots and their drivers. I used you to smash men and women. I used you to smash old men and young men. I used you to smash young men and young women. I used you to smash shepherds and their flocks. I used you to smash farmers and their teams of oxen. I used you to smash governors and leaders.” “But I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia for all the wicked things they did




in Zion right before the eyes of you Judeans,” says the Lord. (NET)

Jeremiah 50:24, I set a trap for you, Babylon; you were caught before you knew it. You fought against me. So you were found and captured. (NET) I. I set a trap (snare) for you, Babylon; you were caught before you knew it.

A. Cyrus captured Babylon quickly by the use of careful military strategies, not by a frontal, overpowering attack. (Coffman)

B. Clarke wrote, “It was not by storm that Cyrus took the city. The Euphrates ran through it; he dug a channel for the river in another direction, to divert its stream; he waited for that time in which the inhabitants had delivered themselves up to debauchery; in the dead of the night he turned off the stream, and he and his army entered by the old channel, now void of waters. This was the trap or snare of which the prophet here speaks.”

C. The Pulpit Commentary reads, “Babylon opened its gates of its own accord, on hearing the defeat and capture of Nabonidus. There is no occasion to look for any further fulfillment of the prophecy than the surprise which must ever come upon the bystander when he sees a mighty empire suddenly pass into the hands of its enemies.”

II. You fought against me. So you were found and captured.




A. Again we see an example of the true maxim, “Whatsoever a man (or nation) sows, that shall he also reap.”

Jeremiah 50:25, I have opened up the place where my weapons are stored. I have brought out the weapons for carrying out my wrath. For I, the Lord God who rules over all, have work to carry out in the land of Babylonia. (NET) I. I have opened up the place where my weapons are stored.* I have brought out the weapons for carrying out my wrath.**

A. *NET Footnote: Or – opened up my armory.

B. **NET Footnote: Referring to the nations God was bringing against them from the north.

C. God’s armory is full and running over. All its destructive weapons would be unleashed against Babylon producing its total destruction.

1. Isaiah 13:5, I have opened up the place where my weapons are stored. I have brought out the weapons for carrying out my wrath. For I, the Lord God who rules over all, have work to carry out in the land of Babylonia. (NET)

II. For I, the Lord God who rules over all, have work to carry out in the land of Babylonia.

A. As mighty as Babylonia had been, God was incomparably stronger and, since he rules over all, he had work to do in Babylonia to right wrongs committed by these Chaldeans.




Jeremiah 50:26, Come from far away and attack Babylonia! Open up the places where she stores her grain! Pile her up in ruins! Destroy her completely! Do not leave anyone alive! (NET) I. Come from far away and attack Babylonia! Open up the places where she stores her grain!

A. “At the time that Cyrus took the city, it was full of provisions and treasures of all kinds; the walls had suffered no injury; and when the inhabitants heard that the inhabitants learned that the enemy was within, they thought they must have arisen out of the earth in the center of the city!” Clarke wrote.

B. The invaders confiscated all the treasures of Babylon.

II. Pile her up in ruins! Destroy her completely! Do not leave anyone alive!

A. “Ransack the repositories of Babylon’s wealth, “The Pulpit Commentary reads.

B. Utter, universal destruction of wicked Babylon is here described.

Jeremiah 50:27, Kill all her soldiers! Let them be slaughtered! They are doomed, for their day of reckoning has come, the time for them to be punished.” (NET)




I. Kill all her soldiers!* Let them be slaughtered! They are doomed,** for their day of reckoning has come, the time for them to be punished.

A. *NET Footnote: Hebrew – her young bulls (figurative for the princes and warriors).

B. **NET Footnote: Hebrew – Woe to them.

C. All of Babylon’s soldiers were to be killed.

1. Joshua 6:21, They annihilated with the sword everything that breathed in the city, including men and women, young and old, as well as cattle, sheep, and donkeys. (NET)

2. Joshua 11:11, 20, They annihilated everyone who lived there with the sword—no one who breathed remained—and burned Hazor. for the Lord determined to make them obstinate so they would attack Israel. He wanted Israel to annihilate them without mercy, as he had instructed Moses. (NET)

D. These soldiers were to be slaughtered as sacrificial victims, bullocks. (See The Pulpit Commentary.)

1. Jeremiah 46:10, But that day belongs to the Lord God who rules over all. It is the day when he will pay back his enemies. His sword will devour them until its appetite is satisfied! It will drink their blood until it is full! For the Lord God




who rules over all will offer them up as a sacrifice in the land of the north by the Euphrates River. (NET)

2. Jeremiah 48:15, Moab will be destroyed. Its towns will be invaded. Its finest young men will be slaughtered. I, the King, the Lord who rules over all, affirm it! (NET)

Jeremiah 50:28, Listen! Fugitives and refugees are coming from the land of Babylon. They are coming to Zion to declare there how the Lord our God is getting revenge, getting revenge for what they have done to his temple. (NET) I. Listen! Fugitives and refugees are coming from the land of Babylon. They are coming to Zion to declare there how the Lord our God is getting revenge, getting revenge for what they have done to his temple.

A. Exiles taken as captives to Babylon will return home to Jerusalem.

B. The returning exiles will bring with them the news that the people of Babylon who destroyed Jerusalem have now been destroyed themselves!

C. God is exacting revenge on Babylon for pillaging, profaning and demolishing the temple and for carrying its sacred vessels to Babylon and placing them in the temple of their god Bel. (Clarke)




Jeremiah 50:29, “Call for archers to come against Babylon! Summon against her all who draw the bow! Set up camp all around the city! Do not allow anyone to escape! Pay her back for what she has done. Do to her what she has done to others. For she has proudly defied me, the Holy One of Israel. (NET) I. “Call for archers to come against Babylon! Summon against her all who draw the bow!

A. Recompense for Babylon’s injustices is contrasted with Israel’s and Judah’s vindication. (Jeremiah 50:29-34) (See Smith.)

B. Clarke noted that the prediction of things to come is contained in verse 28 while here the call is issued to the Medes and Persians to fulfill the prediction.

C. The onslaught on Babylon is pictured here as about to begin.

II. Set up camp all around the city! Do not allow anyone to escape!

A. The Medes and Persians were commanded to surround Babylon and not to allow anyone to escape.

1. The siege of Babylon begins.

III. Pay her back for what she has done. Do to her what she has done to others.




A. Retribution is emphasized here. Babylon was to reap what she had sown.

B. Compare:

1. Jeremiah 49:26, For her young men will fall in her city squares. All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,” says the Lord who rules over all. (NET)

IV. For she has proudly defied me, the Holy One of Israel.*

A. *NET Footnote: A common title for the Lord in the book of Isaiah, but found only here and in 51:5 in Jeremiah.

B. Babylon would be punished because she had arrogantly defied the Lord. (Hamilton)

Jeremiah 50:30, So her young men will fall in her city squares. All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,” says the Lord. (NET) I. So her young men will fall on her city squares. All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,” says the Lord.

A. Compare this verse with Jeremiah 49:26, For her young men will fall in her city squares. All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,” says the Lord who rules over all. (NET)

Jeremiah 50:31, “Listen! I am opposed to you, you proud city,” says the Lord God who rules over all. “Indeed, your




day of reckoning has come, the time when I will punish you. (NET) I. “Listen! I am opposed to you, you proud city,” says the Lord God who rules over all.

A. God is opposed to the proud and arrogant.

1. Isaiah 30:7, Egypt is totally incapable of helping. For this reason I call her ‘Proud one who is silenced.’” (NET)

2. Isaiah 51:9, Wake up! Wake up! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the Lord! Wake up as in former times, as in antiquity! Did you not smash the Proud One? Did you not wound the sea monster? (NET)

3. Job 26:12, By his power he stills the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab the great sea monster to pieces. (NET)

4. Psalm 87:4, I mention Rahab and Babylon to my followers. Here are Philistia and Tyre, along with Ethiopia. It is said of them, “This one was born there.” (NET)

5. Psalm 89:10, You crushed the Proud One and killed it; with your strong arm you scattered your enemies. (NET)




II. “Indeed, your day of reckoning has come, the time when I will punish you.

A. The time in which Babylon could have repented has passed. The time for punishment has come.

B. The fall of Babylon took place on October 29, 539 B.C. (Bromiley)

Jeremiah 50:32, You will stumble and fall, you proud city; no one will help you get up. I will set fire to your towns; it will burn up everything that surrounds you.” (NET) I. You will stumble and fall, you proud city; no one will help you get up.

A. The arrogant Babylonians were proud of their wealth, agricultural productivity and military accomplishments, but these things were temporary and would soon cease. The greatest would become the least.

1. Isaiah 47:8-10, So now, listen to this, O one who lives so lavishly, who lives securely, who says to herself, ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me! I will never have to live as a widow; I will never lose my children.’ Both of these will come upon you suddenly, in one day! You will lose your children and be widowed. You will be overwhelmed by these tragedies, despite your many incantations and your numerous amulets. You were complacent in your evil deeds; you thought, ‘No one sees me.’ Your self-




professed wisdom and knowledge lead you astray, when you say, ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me!’ (NET)

2. Habakkuk 1:6, Look, I am about to empower the Babylonians, that ruthless and greedy nation. They sweep across the surface of the earth, seizing dwelling places that do not belong to them. (NET)

3. Babylonians had opposed and defied God. Babylon now had to face the god they had disdained and despised. (See Willis.)

B. Israel, not Babylon, is reaffirmed as God’s chosen people with whom the Lord seeks to establish an everlasting covenant. (See Willis.)

1. Jeremiah 31:31-34, “Indeed, a time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” says the Lord. “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,” says the Lord. “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people. (NET)




II. I will set fire to your towns; it will burn up everything that surrounds you.”

A. Babylon and the towns around it would be burned to the ground. What they had done to others would now be done to them.

Jeremiah 50:33, The Lord who rules over all says, “The people of Israel are oppressed. So too are the people of Judah. All those who took them captive are holding them prisoners. They refuse to set them free. (NET) I. The Lord who rules over all says, . . .

A. The all powerful ruler of the universe has a word for Babylon.

B. Fear and trembling would overcome the people of Babylon.

1. How do you feel about standing before Almighty God at the judgment at which time your eternal destiny, heaven or hell, will be the verdict?

II. “The people of Israel are oppressed. So too are the people of Judah.

A. The Assyrians conquered the Northern kingdom of Israel and much later the Babylonians conquered the southern kingdom of Judah.




B. At the time this passage was written the Israelites north and south were definitely oppressed.

III. All those who took them captive are holding them prisoners. They refuse to set them free.

A. Babylon refused to set the Israelite captives free, but god would himself see to their redemption.

1. Leviticus 25:25, “‘If your brother becomes impoverish-ed and sells some of his property, his near redeemer is to come to you and redeem what his brother sold. (NET)

2. Numbers 35:21, or with enmity he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death, for he is a murderer. The avenger of blood must kill the murderer when he meets him. (NET)

B. God, as the Redeemer and the next of kin of Israel and Judah, charged with the duty of recovering the rights and avenging their wrongs, was prepared to intervene.

1. Isaiah 40:2, “Speak kindly to Jerusalem, and tell her that her time of warfare is over, that her punishment is completed. For the Lord has made her pay double for all her sins.” (NET)

2. Isaiah 41:14, Don’t be afraid, despised insignificant Jacob, men of Israel. I am helping




you,” says the Lord, your protector, the Holy One of Israel. (NET)

3. Isaiah 47:4, says our protector— the Lord who commands armies is his name, the Holy One of Israel. (NET)

4. Leviticus 25:25, “‘If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his near redeemer is to come to you and redeem what his brother sold. (NET)

5. Ruth 4:6, The guardian said, “Then I am unable to redeem it, for I would ruin my own inheritance in that case. You may exercise my redemption option, for I am unable to redeem it.” (NET)

6. Numbers 30:19, . . . (? no such verse)

Jeremiah 50:34, But the one who will rescue them is strong. He is known as the Lord who rules over all. He will strongly champion their cause. As a result he will bring peace and rest to the earth, but trouble and turmoil to the people who inhabit Babylonia. (NET) I. But the one who will rescue them* is strong. He is known as the Lord who rules over all.

A. *NET Footnote: Hebrew – their redeemer.




B. The Lord Almighty is Israel’s Redeemer, rescues who will do for them what they were unable to do for themselves. (See Willis.)

1. Exodus 6:6, Therefore, tell the Israelites, ‘I am the Lord. I will bring you out from your enslavement to the Egyptians, I will rescue you from the hard labor they impose, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. (NET)

2. Exodus 15:13, By your loyal love you will lead the people whom you have redeemed; you will guide them by your strength to your holy dwelling place. (NET)

3. Proverbs 23:11, for their Protector is strong; he will plead their case against you. (NET)

C. Compare verse 34 with: . . .

1. Isaiah 43:14, This is what the Lord says, your protector, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I send to Babylon and make them all fugitives, turning the Babylonians’ joyful shouts into mourning songs. (NET)

2. Isaiah 44:6, This is what the Lord, Israel’s king, says, their protector, the Lord who commands armies: “I am the first and I am the last, there is no God but me. (NET)




D. God did not lack power to protect the people of Jerusalem. The city had been destroyed because of their sins.

1. Now God would exact justice on Babylon for their brutality and arrogance.

II. He will strongly champion their cause. As a result he will bring peace and rest to the earth, but trouble and turmoil to the people who inhabit Babylonia.

A. Clarke wrote, “. . . the Lord of hosts shows them that the power of the Chaldeans is mere weakness against his might.”

1. Jeremiah 47:6, How long will you cry out, ‘Oh, sword of the Lord, how long will it be before you stop killing? Go back into your sheath! Stay there and rest!’ (NET)

B. The earth that had for so long suffered at the hands of the Babylonians would be returned to peace and rest.

1. Isaiah 14:2-3, Nations will take them and bring them back to their own place. Then the family of Jacob will make foreigners their servants as they settle in the Lord’s land. They will make their captors captives and rule over the ones who oppressed them. When the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and anxiety, and from the hard labor which you were made to perform, (NET)




Jeremiah 50:35, “Destructive forces will come against the Baby-lonians,” says the Lord. “They will come against the people who inhabit Babylonia, against her leaders and her men of wisdom. (NET) I. “Destructive forces will come against the Babylonians,” *says the Lord. “They will come against the people who inhabit Babylonia, against her leaders and her men of wisdom.”

A. *NET Footnote: the Chaldeans.

B. Babylon would be thoroughly and permanently destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. The place would be fit for only desert creatures. (Jeremiah 50:35-40) (Smith)

C. Destruction forces will come against the Babylonians, their leaders and their men of wisdom which would “include astronomers and astrologers.” (The Pulpit Commentary)

1. Clarke defined “destructive forces” as “war and its calamities, or any grievous plague.”

2. Isaiah 47:13, You are tired out from listening to so much advice. Let them take their stand— the ones who see omens in the sky, who gaze at the stars, who make monthly predictions— let them rescue you from the disaster that is about to overtake you! (NET)

Jeremiah 50:36, Destructive forces will come against her false prophets; they will be shown to be fools! Destructive




forces will come against her soldiers; they will be filled with terror! (NET) I. Destructive forces will come against her false prophets; they will be shown to be fools!

A. Destructive forces will come against Babylon’s false prophets.

B. These false prophets would be shown to be fools, liars.

1. Isaiah 44:25, who frustrates the omens of the empty talkers and humiliates the omen readers, who overturns the counsel of the wise men and makes their advice seem foolish, (NET)

2. These may have been pretenders to wisdom, The Pulpit Commentary reads.

II. Destructive forces will come against her soldiers; they will be filled with terror!

A. Destructive forces will come against Babylon’s military. Jeremiah 50:37, Destructive forces will come against her horses and her chariots. Destructive forces will come against all the foreign troops within her; they will be as frightened as women! Destructive forces will come against her treasures; they will be taken away as plunder! (NET)




I. Destructive forces will come against her horses and her chariots.

A. Destructive forces will come against Babylon’s horses and chariots.

II. Destructive forces will come against all the foreign troops within her; *they will be as frightened as women!

A. *NET Footnote: Or – in the country; or in her armies; Hebrew – in her midst.

B. Destructive forces will be brought against all the foreign troops allied with the Babylonians.

III. Destructive forces will come against her treasures; they will be taken away as plunder!

A. Destructive forces will be brought against Babylon’s wealth, treasures.

Jeremiah 50:38, A drought will come upon her land; her rivers and canals will be dried up. All of this will happen because her land is filled with idols. Her people act like madmen because of those idols they fear. (NET) I. A drought will come upon her land; her rivers and canals will be dried up.

A. Coffman understood this to be a reference to the method used by Cyrus in his conquest of Babylon which involved the diverting of the Euphrates River out of its channel.




II. All of this will happen because her land is filled with idols. Her people act like madmen because of those idols they fear.

A. Sin, specifically idolatry, was the cause of all Babylon’s coming devastation.

B. Idolaters in their worship did strange, weird and crazy things causing these worshipers to be regarded as madmen.

Jeremiah 50:39, Therefore desert creatures and jackals will live there. Ostriches will dwell in it too. But no people will ever live there again. No one will dwell there for all time to come. (NET) I. Therefore desert creatures and jackals will live there. Ostriches* will dwell in it too.

A. *NET Footnote: Some identify this bird as a type of owl.

B. Compare verses 39-40 with: . . .

1. Isaiah 13:19-22, Babylon, the most admired of kingdoms, the Chaldeans’ source of honor and pride, will be destroyed by God just as Sodom and Gomorrah were. No one will live there again; no one will ever reside there again. No bedouin will camp there, no shepherds will rest their flocks there. Wild animals will rest there, the ruined houses will be full of hyenas. Ostriches will live there, wild goats will skip among the ruins. Wild dogs will yip in her ruined fortresses,




jackals will yelp in the once-splendid palaces. Her time is almost up, her days will not be prolonged. (NET)

2. Isaiah 34:14, Wild animals and wild dogs will congregate there; wild goats will bleat to one another. Yes, nocturnal animals will rest there and make for themselves a nest. (NET)

C. Bible references to jackals are confusing since jackal, hyena, fox, and wolf may be used interchangeably, depending on the translation. Both hyenas and jackals are members of the dog family. Both were considered ceremonially unclean because they were scavengers. (See Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible dictionary.)

D. Ostriches, referenced as owls in the KJV, were a common sight in the deserts of Israel and the Sinai in Bible times. The ostrich is the world’s largest bird, but it cannot fly. (Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

II. But no people will ever live there again. No one will dwell there for all time to come.

A. When God proclaimed the total desertion of Babylon, the city was powerful and the envy of the world.

1. Who could have believed this prophecy at the time it was issued?

2. But where is Babylon today? Out in the desert somewhere not far from Baghdad.




3. Let God be found true, and every man a liar.

B. Hamilton wrote, “Once a thriving city, Babylon will be uninhabited. The ruins of Babylon have lain vacant for centuries. In spite of excavations and reconstruction for tourism in the last century, the city remains uninhabited.”

Jeremiah 50:40, I will destroy Babylonia just like I did Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns. No one will live there. No human being will settle in it,” says the Lord. (NET) I. I will destroy Babylonia just like I did Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns.

A. Isaiah 13:19-22, Babylon, the most admired of kingdoms, the Chaldeans’ source of honor and pride, will be destroyed by God just as Sodom and Gomorrah were. No one will live there again; no one will ever reside there again. No bedouin will camp there, no shepherds will rest their flocks there. Wild animals will rest there, the ruined houses will be full of hyenas. Ostriches will live there, wild goats will skip among the ruins. Wild dogs will yip in her ruined fortresses, jackals will yelp in the once-splendid palaces. Her time is almost up, her days will not be prolonged. (NET)

B. Compare verse 40 with: . . . *




1. Jeremiah 49:18, Edom will be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah and the towns that were around them. No one will live there. No human being will settle in it,” says the Lord. (NET)

C. Sodom and Gomorrah were cities at the southern end of the Dead Sea which were destroyed because of their notorious wickedness along with their sister cities, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar. Fire and brimstone fell from heaven and consumed these cities. (Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

*Note: Comparative scriptures may be worded similarly but apply to different countries and circumstances. II. No one will live there.* No human being will settle in it,” says the Lord.

A. *NET Footnote: The same prophecy is applied to Edom in __?

B. Babylon would be left totally barren, unfruitful, and utterly incapable of being inhabited. (Clarke)

1. Jeremiah 49:18, Edom will be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah and the towns that were around them. No one will live there. No human being will settle in it,” says the Lord. (NET)

Jeremiah 50:41, “Look! An army is about to come from the north. A mighty nation and many kings are stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth. (NET)




I. “Look! An army is about to come from the north. A mighty nation and many kings are stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth.

A. Babylon would be ruthlessly destroyed. (Jeremiah 50:41-46) (Smith)

B. Compare verses 41-43 with: . . .

1. Jeremiah 49:19-21, “A lion coming up from the thick undergrowth along the Jordan scatters the sheep in the pastureland around it. So too I will chase the Edomites off their land. Then I will appoint over it whomever I choose. For there is no one like me, and there is no one who can call me to account. There is no ruler who can stand up against me. So listen to what I, the Lord, have planned against Edom, what I intend to do to the people who live in Teman. Their little ones will be dragged off. I will completely destroy their land because of what they have done. The people of the earth will quake when they hear of their downfall. Their cries of anguish will be heard all the way to the Gulf of Aqaba. (NET)

2. Jeremiah 6:22-24, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Beware! An army is coming from a land in the north. A mighty nation is stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth. Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears. They are cruel and show no mercy. They sound like the roaring sea




as they ride forth on their horses. Lined up in formation like men going into battle to attack you, Daughter Zion.’” The people cry out, “We have heard reports about them! We have become helpless with fear! Anguish grips us, agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby! (NET)

a. In Jeremiah 6:22-24 Jerusalem is the subject while in Jeremiah 50:41-46 Babylon is the subject.

C. Jeremiah wrote this long before it actually occurred. It was by divine inspiration Jeremiah revealed this information. (See Coffman.)

1. The “many kings” is a reference to vassal kings assisting their overlord, this being the normal part of a suzerain-vassal treaty; and, when Cyrus conquered Babylon, his army contained a number of such vassal contingents.” (Thompson via Coffman)

Jeremiah 50:42, Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears. They are cruel and show no mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride forth on their horses. Lined up in formation like men going into battle, they are coming against you, fair Babylon! (NET) I. Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears. They are cruel and show no mercy.

A. Those attacking Babylon, the Medes, Persians and their allies, were heavily armed and skilled.




1. They also were cruel and would show no mercy.

II. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride forth on their horses.

A. “The army from the north included those who ride on their horses, probably Scythian horsemen allied with the Medes and Persians and renowned for their horsemanship,” Hamilton wrote.

III. Lined up in formation like men going into battle, they are coming against you, fair Babylon.*

A. *NET Footnote: Hebrew – Daughter Babylon (also in 51:33, For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, ‘Fair Babylon will be like a threshing floor which has been trampled flat for harvest. The time for her to be cut down and harvested will come very soon.’ (NET)

B. Babylon had meted out God’s justice. Now it is Babylon’s turn to receive her just punishment. (Willis)

Jeremiah 50:43, The king of Babylon will become paralyzed with fear when he hears news of their coming. Anguish will grip him, agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby. (NET) I. The king of Babylon will become paralyzed with fear when he hears news of their coming.




A. Belshazzar was quite a contrast with the brave, courageous Nebuchadnezzar who conquered the Middle East.

1. Daniel 5:1-31, King Belshazzar prepared a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in front of them all. While under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar issued an order to bring in the gold and silver vessels—the ones that Nebuchadnezzar his father had confiscated from the temple in Jerusalem—so that the king and his nobles, together with his wives and his concubines, could drink from them. So they brought the gold and silver vessels that had been confiscated from the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, together with his wives and concubines, drank from them. As they drank wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. At that very moment the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the royal palace wall, opposite the lampstand. The king was watching the back of the hand that was writing. Then all the color drained from the king’s face and he became alarmed. The joints of his hips gave way, and his knees began knocking together. The king called out loudly to summon the astrologers, wise men, and diviners. The king proclaimed to the wise men of Babylon that anyone who could read this inscription and disclose its interpretation would be clothed in




purple and have a golden collar placed on his neck and be third ruler in the kingdom. So all the king’s wise men came in, but they were unable to read the writing or to make known its interpretation to the king. Then King Belshazzar was very terrified, and he was visibly shaken. His nobles were completely dumbfounded. Due to the noise caused by the king and his nobles, the queen mother then entered the banquet room. She said, “O king, live forever! Don’t be alarmed! Don’t be shaken! There is a man in your kingdom who has within him a spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, he proved to have insight, discernment, and wisdom like that of the gods. King Nebuchadnezzar your father appoint-ed him chief of the magicians, astrologers, wise men, and diviners. Thus there was found in this man Daniel, whom the king renamed Belteshaz-zar, an extraordinary spirit, knowledge, and skill to interpret dreams, solve riddles, and decipher knotty problems. Now summon Daniel, and he will disclose the interpretation.” So Daniel was brought in before the king. The king said to Daniel, “Are you that Daniel who is one of the captives of Judah, whom my father the king brought from Judah? I have heard about you, how there is a spirit of the gods in you, and how you have insight, discernment, and extraor-dinary wisdom. Now the wise men and astrologers were brought before me to read this writing and make known to me its interpret-tation. But they were unable to disclose the




interpretation of the message. However, I have heard that you are able to provide interpreta-tions and to decipher knotty problems. Now if you are able to read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, you will wear purple and have a golden collar around your neck and be third ruler in the kingdom.” But Daniel replied to the king, “Keep your gifts, and give your rewards to someone else! However, I will read the writing for the king and make known its interpretation. As for you, O king, the most high God bestowed on your father Nebuchadnezzar a kingdom, greatness, honor, and majesty. Due to the greatness that he bestowed on him, all peoples, nations, and language groups were trembling with fear before him. He killed whom he wished, he spared whom he wished, he exalted whom he wished, and he brought low whom he wished. And when his mind became arrogant and his spirit filled with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and his honor was removed from him. He was driven from human society, his mind was changed to that of an animal, he lived with the wild donkeys, he was fed grass like oxen, and his body became damp with the dew of the sky, until he came to understand that the most high God rules over human kingdoms, and he appoints over them whomever he wishes. “But you, his son Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, although you knew all this. Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of




heaven. You brought before you the vessels from his temple, and you and your nobles, together with your wives and concubines, drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone—gods that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control your very breath and all your ways! Therefore the palm of a hand was sent from him, and this writing was inscribed. “This is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Teqel, and Pharsin. This is the interpretation of the words: As for mene—God has numbered your kingdom’s days and brought it to an end. As for teqel—you are weighed on the balances and found to be lacking. As for peres—your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.” Then, on Belshazzar’s orders, Daniel was clothed in purple, a golden collar was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed third ruler in the kingdom. And in that very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, was killed. (6:1) So Darius the Mede took control of the kingdom when he was about sixty-two years old. (NET)

II. Anguish will grip him, agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby.*

A. *NET Footnote: An almost identical prophecy is applied to Judah in Jeremiah 6:22-24, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Beware! An army is coming from a land in the north. A mighty nation is stirring into action in




faraway parts of the earth. Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears. They are cruel and show no mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride forth on their horses. Lined up in formation like men going into battle to attack you, Daughter Zion.’” The people cry out, “We have heard reports about them! We have become helpless with fear! Anguish grips us, agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby! (NET)

Jeremiah 50:44, “A lion coming up from the thick undergrowth along the Jordan scatters the sheep in the pastureland around it. So too I will chase the Babylonians off of their land. Then I will appoint over it whomever I choose. For there is no one like me. There is no one who can call me to account. There is no ruler that can stand up against me. (NET) I. “A lion coming up from the thick undergrowth along the Jordan scatters the sheep in the pastureland around it.

A. Compare verses 44-46 with Jeremiah 49:19-21 where the reference is to Edom. (Hamilton)

1. Jeremiah 49:19-21, “A lion coming up from the thick undergrowth along the Jordan scatters the sheep in the pastureland around it. So too I will chase the Edomites off their land. Then I will appoint over it whomever I choose. For there is no one like me, and there is no one who can call me to account. There is no ruler who can stand up against me. So listen to what I, the Lord,




have planned against Edom, what I intend to do to the people who live in Teman. Their little ones will be dragged off. I will completely destroy their land because of what they have done. The people of the earth will quake when they hear of their downfall. Their cries of anguish will be heard all the way to the Gulf of Aqaba. (NET)

2. Jeremiah 50:44-46, “A lion coming up from the thick undergrowth along the Jordan scatters the sheep in the pastureland around it. So too I will chase the Babylonians off of their land. Then I will appoint over it whomever I choose. For there is no one like me. There is no one who can call me to account. There is no ruler that can stand up against me. So listen to what I, the Lord, have planned against Babylon, what I intend to do to the people who inhabit the land of Babylonia. Their little ones will be dragged off. I will completely destroy their land because of what they have done. The people of the earth will quake when they hear Babylon has been captured. Her cries of anguish will be heard by the other nations.” (NET)

II. So too I will chase the Babylonians off of their land. Then I will appoint over it whomever I choose.

A. God was in charge! As the Babylonians had dispossessed many nations, God would “chase the Babylonians off their land” and give it to whomever he chose.




III. For there is no one like me. There is no one who can call me to account. There is no ruler that can stand up against me.

A. God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. He had/has no equals.

Jeremiah 50:45, So listen to what I, the Lord, have planned against Babylon, what I intend to do to the people who inhabit the land of Babylonia. Their little ones will be dragged off. I will completely destroy their land because of what they have done. (NET) I. So listen to what I, the Lord, have planned against Babylon, what I intend to do to the people who inhabit the land of Babylonia.

A. God knew the future just as well as he knew the past and present.

B. God has complete control of all his creation and does in all respects as he sees fit.

II. Their little ones will be dragged off. I will completely destroy their land because of what they have done.

A. Actions, behaviors have consequences!

B. Our actions, for better or worse, can affect our “little ones,” innocent people.




Jeremiah 50:46, The people of the earth will quake when they hear Babylon has been captured. Her cries of anguish will be heard by the other nations.” (NET) I. The people of the earth will quake when they hear Babylon has been captured.

A. When weaker nations hear of the horrendous destruction of Babylon and knowing that they could also be devastated by the same power that destroyed Babylon, all the people of the Middle East would quake, tremble in fear.

II. Her cries of anguish will be heard by the other nations.*

A. *NET Footnote: almost identical prophecy is applied to Edom in Jeremiah 49:19-21, “A lion coming up from the thick undergrowth along the Jordan scatters the sheep in the pastureland around it. So too I will chase the Edomites off their land. Then I will appoint over it whomever I choose. For there is no one like me, and there is no one who can call me to account. There is no ruler who can stand up against me. So listen to what I, the Lord, have planned against Edom, what I intend to do to the people who live in Teman. Their little ones will be dragged off. I will completely destroy their land because of what they have done. The people of the earth will quake when they hear of their downfall. Their cries of anguish will be heard all the way to the Gulf of Aqaba. (NET)




B. “The taking of Babylon was a wonder to all the surrounding nations. It was thought to be impregnable.” (Clarke)

Conclusion: I. God is pictured under different figures as determined by the situations he is facing at a particular time.

A. In this chapter, God is depicted as a shepherd to the righteous (Israel) and as a lion to the wicked (Babylon). (Hamilton)

II. Matthew Henry highlighted Jeremiah 50:1-46 as follows: . . .

A. Verses 1-8 contain a word spoken against Babylon and a word spoken for the comfort of the people of God, both Israel and Judah.

1. Israel/Judah would first return to God and then to their homeland.

2. Israel’s/Judah’s present situation was very sad and had been sad for a long time.

3. They were urged to flee their captivity at first opportunity and return to their homeland.

B. Verses 9-20 speak of God’s controversy with Babylon.

1. Those charged with destroying Babylon are commissioned and charged.




2. The desolation and destruction that would fall upon Babylon are described under various figures.

3. The causes of this destruction are identified, stated.

4. Mercy is promised to the Israel of God.

C. Verses 21-32 speak to the forces to be mustered and commissioned to destroy Babylon.

D. Verses 33-46 speak to:

1. Israel’s sufferings, and their deliverance out of those sufferings.

2. Babylon’s sins and their punishment for that sin.

a. Babylon’s sins included idolatry and persecu-tion.

b. God’s judgments upon Babylon for their sins would destroy their defences, make their country desolate, put their king and kingdom into utmost confusion and the people would be both hurt and frightened.




Questions

on

Jeremiah 50:1-46 1. Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians on ______________ ______________, ______________ B.C. 2. When were the oracles pertaining to the Judgment Against Babylon found in Jeremiah 50 and 51 revealed by the Lord to Jeremiah? Give reasons for your answer. ___________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. The oracles found in Jeremiah 50 and 51 related to the ______________ of ______________ and the ______________ of the ______________ to their ______________. 4. Considering everything said in the book of Jeremiah, what was Jeremiah’s attitude and position toward Babylon? _____________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________




5. Considering everything said in the book of Jeremiah, what was Jeremiah’s attitude and position toward Israel and Judah? ______ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. To what nations was the oracle recorded in Jeremiah 50 to be proclaimed? ___________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 7. The ______________ ______________ are that through ______________ of ______________, the ______________ of the ___________ has ____________ always been ____________ ______________ and, when the ______________ has been ___________ ____________, ____________ have ___________ ____________ ____________ _____________ ______________ to it. 8. Who were Bel, Marduk and Merodach? How were they related to Babylon and the matters discussed in Jeremiah 50 and 51? ___ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________




9. What was the significance of the direction “north” in Jeremiah 50 and 51? ___________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 10. _______________ was overtime totally ______________, ______________, ______________. Relate the course of events that led to this result. ___________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 11. Did “the ten lost tribes” of Israel ever return to their homeland? Give reasons for your answer. __________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 12. Compare the character and attitude of the exiles taken to Babylon with the character and attitude of those that returned. __ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________




13. Define “Zion” as used in the Bible. ______________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 14. To what “lasting covenant that will never be forgotten” did the returning people of Israel and Judah bind themselves? _____ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 15. Why was a new covenant needed? _____________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 16. Who were the shepherds who had led God’s people, lost sheep, astray? What lesson is there in this for all of us? _______ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________




17. What is meant by the statement that God’s lost sheep wandered around in the mountains, wandered from one mountain and hill to another? _____________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 18. Why did those who had devoured Judah and Jerusalem think they would not be liable for punishment for these behaviors? ___ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 19. Why was Judah’s sinfulness considered treasonous? _______ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 20. The exiled people of Judah were commanded to flee Babylon en masse at their first opportunity. What did they in fact do in regard to fleeing Babylon? _______________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________




21. What did “male goats” have to do with Judah’s departure from Babylon? _________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 22. The ______________ and ______________ formed an ___________ with various other ___________ and ___________ ______________ and ______________ ______________. 23. What strategies did Cyrus use to conquer Babylon? ________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 24. The ____________ and ____________ were _____________ ___________, _____________ _____________, _____________ ____________. They would ____________ be ______________ ______________. 25. ____________ will be ____________. The ______________ of ______________ will be ______________ by ______________ by the ____________, a _____________ of that _____________. 26. The ______________ had ______________ ______________ and __________. Now the __________ would be ___________.




27. God used Babylon to punish wicked Judah. Why then did God punish Babylon? _______________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 28. Once mighty Babylon was put to shame, disgraced. Name as many other great nations as you can that rose to great heights, but then fell into defeat and decline. _______________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 29. What words and phrases describe the final status of Babylon. See Jeremiah 50:12-13. _________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 30. The ____________ and ____________ were to ___________ _____________ their ______________ against ______________ in the most ____________ ____________ with ______________ ______________ to the most ______________ ______________ of the ______________.




31. Those ______________ ______________ were to bring their ______________ ______________ of ______________ against ______________. All their ______________ ______________ was to be ______________ against ______________ so that it would be ____________ and ______________ ______________. 32. ____________ would be ____________ and _____________ ____________ from all ______________ would ______________ throughout the ______________ causing ______________ in the ______________ of ______________ the ______________ in the ___________. ___________ will throw up her ___________ in ______________. 33. When did Babylon’s towers fall? When were its walls torn down? _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 34. Explain the meaning and implications of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” and, “Do to her as she has done!” _____ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 35. Why were farmers to be killed? What harm had they done to warrant death? ________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________




_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 36. Who were the “foreigners” mentioned in verse 16? What were they advised to do? ________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 37. Explain how Israel, north and south, were like scattered sheep. Who were the lions? What happened to them? ________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 38. Who were the Assyrians? _____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 39. Why is “gnawed their bones” an appropriate figure for the way Nebuchadnezzar treated Judah? _______________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________




_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 40. Many ___________ in ___________ reference ____________ and the ______________ ______________ because that was the ______________ with which most people were familiar. 41. How is the Lord God described in Jeremiah 50? ___________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 42. Name as many kings as you can who had been involved in Israel’s and Judah’s tribulations. ___________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 43. Where would Israel “graze”? Why were these places mentioned in connection with the figure of Israel’s being a flock?_ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________




44. Locate and give as much information as possible about Mount Carmel, the land of Bashan, the hills of Ephraim and the land of Gilead. _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 45. When would the time come when there would be no guilt found in Israel and no sin would be found in Judah? As all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, how could Israel and Judah be free of the guilt of sin? __________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 46. Locate and give as much information as you can about Merathaim and Pekod. What was to happen to Merathaim and Pekod? _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 47. God commanded, “______________ just as ______________ have ______________ you!” ______________ ______________ and ______________ ______________ is ______________ from this ______________.




48. Describe “the noise of battle” and the sounds associated with it. ___________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 49. The ______________, because of their ______________ ______________ of so many ______________, was called the “______________ of the ______________ ______________,” but ____________ will itself be ____________, ______________ and ______________. 50. What trap, snare did God set for Babylon? What strategies did the Medes and Persians use in their conquest of Babylon? ___ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 51. As ___________ as ____________ had been, ____________ was ____________ ____________ and, since he _____________ ______________ ______________, he had ______________ to do in ______________ to ______________ ______________ ______________ by these ______________. 52. The ______________ and ______________ would come from ____________ ____________ to ____________ _____________. They would open up the places where her ______________ was




stored. The ____________ ____________ all the ____________ of ______________. 53. According to verses 26-27, what would happen to the people of Babylon? Reconcile these actions with God’s grace, love and mercy. _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 54. Who were the fugitives and refugees that were leaving Babylon? What would they declare and to whom would they declare it? ____________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 55. In verse 29, ________________ for _________________’s ______________ is ______________ with ______________’s and ______________’s ______________. No one was to ______________. ______________ her ______________ for what she has done. ______________ to her what she has ______________ to ______________. 56. God’s justice demanded that Babylon’s ______________ _____________ would ______________ in her ______________ ____________ and all her ______________ be ______________ because they had ______________ ______________ God, the




______________ ______________ of ______________. God was ______________ to Babylon, the ______________ ______________. The ______________ of ______________ has come. “You will ______________ and ______________, you ____________ ____________; ____________ ______________ will ______________ you. God would set ______________ to Babylon’s ____________. _____________ that ______________ Babylon would be ______________ ______________. 57. How do you feel about standing before Almighty God at the judgment at which time your eternal destiny, heaven or hell, will be the verdict? ________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 58. How, by whom, and when were the people of Israel and the people of Judah oppressed? ______________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 59. ____________, as the ____________ and the ____________ of ______________ of ______________ and ______________, ____________ with the ______________ and ______________ their _____________, was ______________ to ______________.




60. ______________ did ______________ lack ______________ to ______________ the people of ______________. The ______________ had been ______________ because of their ____________. Now ____________ would exact ____________ on ____________ for their ____________ and ______________. 61. ______________ would ______________ ______________ the cause of ______________ and ______________. As a ____________ he will bring ____________ and ______________ to the ____________, but ____________ and ______________ to the ______________ of ______________. 62. Destructive forces would come against the ______________, the ___________ who inhabit ____________, her ___________, her ______________ of ______________, her ______________ ______________ who will be shown to be ______________, her ____________ who will be ______________ with ____________, her ___________ and ____________, against the ____________ ______________ within her who would be as ______________ as ______________, her ______________ which would be taken away as ______________. 63. When did a drought come upon Babylonia? When did her rivers and canals dry up? ________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 64. Why did all these misfortunes befall Babylonia? ___________




_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 65. According to verse 39, what would happen to Babylon? ____ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 66. Compare Babylonia’s destruction with that of Sodom and Gomorrah. ____________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 67. Locate and give as much information as you can about Sodom and Gomorrah. Of what sins were the people of Sodom and Gomorrah guilty? _______________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________




68. Give examples of comparative scriptures which are worded similarly but which apply to different places/people. Specify to what/whom each applies. ________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 69. What mighty nation and many kings came against Babylon from the north? ________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 70. Those attacking Babylon were armed with ______________ and ____________. They are ____________ and ____________ ______________ ______________. 71. Describe the attack addressed in verse 42 against Babylon. __ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 72. What were the reactions, emotional and otherwise, by their king and citizens to the coming attack on Babylon? ___________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________




_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 73. In verse 44, who was represented by the lion and who was represented by the sheep? _______________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 74. God is ____________, ____________ and ______________. ____________ _____________ could call him to _____________. There was and never will be a ______________ that can ______________ ______________ ______________ him. 75. What, according to verse 45, did the Lord have planned against Babylon? _______________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 76. What will the people of the earth do when they heard Babylon had been captured? ____________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________




77. According to Matthew Henry, what is said in Jeremiah 50:1-8? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 78. According to Matthew Henry, of what does Jeremiah 50:9-20 speak? _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 79. According to Matthew Henry, of what does Jeremiah 50:21-32 speak? _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 80. According to Matthew Henry, to what does Jeremiah 50:33-46 speak? _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

